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KirbyThu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000RSS FeedProjekt Phoenix in Germanyhttps://www.german-ufo-research.org/en/blog/project-phoenix-2018-08-12
https://www.german-ufo-research.org/en/blog/project-phoenix-2018-08-12Sun, 12 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000The end of May 2018 marked a breakthrough for Germany in the availability of UFO-related publications, which has remained almost unnoticed in this country – as part of "Project Phoenix" initiated by Isaac Koi.

Isaac Koi is a barrister in England who since 2013 has done outstanding work to enable the release of numerous older UFO-related publications. Thanks to his effort, for thousands of pages of hundreds of different UFO publications from all over the world permissions have been granted, they have been scanned and made freely accessible over the years. The Swedish organisation AFU - Archives for the Unexplained, which has one of the largest archives on UFOs and borderline sciences worldwide at its disposal and to which numerous internationally renowned UFO researchers donated their own archives, is involved in this work. The AFU has established its own working group to support the release of the publications in cooperation with Isaac Koi.

Whenever he achieved permission and scans of another publication to upload it to the AFU pages, Isaac Koi reports this in the Above Top Secret Forum, on his Facebook page and on some UFO mailing lists.

Towards the end of 2017, the announcement of "Project Phoenix" arrived, initially planned as a week-long collaborative work by various UFO groups and researchers to search further archives, scan material and obtain permission to release it, so that they can contribute to the body of material accessible to research on the UFO topic.

Worldwide well-known researchers such as James Carrion, David Clarke, Tony Eccles, Mikhail Gershtein, Kit Green, Barry Greenwood, Dick Haines, Igor Kalytyuk, Bruce Maccabee, Lance Moody, James Oberg, Tim Printy, Hal Puthoff, Jenny Randles, Edoardo Russo, John Schuessler, Jacques Scornaux and many more publicly supported the project with the following statement: "We consider that making source materials about reports of 'UFOs' (including official documents, periodicals and relevant audio recordings) easily and freely available online is likely to contribute to the study of relevant physical, historical, psychological and sociological issues. If you are able to help with digitisation projects such as the one being conducted by the AFU in Sweden, we would appreciate you doing so".

From April 2018 onwards, the originally planned one-week project became an ongoing project, as various contacts in numerous EU countries broadened the work to include numerous non-English publications. For Germany, the author of this article contacted Isaac Koi and coordinated contributions from the UFO organizations and individual researchers. The interim results are now available at the AFU website files.afu.se/Downloads/Magazines/Germany in searchable PDF format:

Bilk: magazine by Ulrich Magin, 80 issues

CENAP-Newsflash: 26 issues

CENAP-Report: 286 issues

DEGUFORUM: all 90 issues

Hangar 18: magazine by Christian Czech, 5 issues

Journal für UFO-Forschung - jufof: issues 1-204

MUFON-CES-Berichte: 11 book publications

Mysteria: magazine by Axel Ertelt, 58 issues

PEGAP Info: 7 issues

UFO-Information: magazine by CENAP Heilbronn, 25 issues

Der UFO-Student: magazine by T.A. Günter, 5 issues

UFO and PSI Magazine: magazine by Christian Pfeiler, 13 issues

Examples of German UFO magazines which can now be downloaded in PDF format at the AFU website

All three UFO organizations of the German Cooperation Initiative and other organisations and researchers from Germany participated in the release of material.

Many of the publications could be made directly available in the form of scans already done in Germany (especially by the GEP and by UFO-Information.de), so that the coordination between Isaac Koi and Danny Ammon avoided any duplicate work of additional scanning.

For some publications, e.g. CENAP-Report, further issues are currently being scanned and then uploaded. With the transition to a yearbook from 2017 at DEGUFO, the upload of the DEGUFORUM is complete. For the Journal für UFO-Forschung the GEP has decided to make all issues available regularly via the AFU website except for the last 5 years, so that e.g. volume 34 (2013) will be uploaded towards the end of this year.

One effect of releasing such valuable material that should not be underestimated is that they offer an answer to the question: "Is UFO research (still) being conducted in country X? Due to the language barrier and the rarely international work of German-speaking UFO organizations (beyond this bilingual blog), the work of Isaac Koi and the AFU do quite easily show:
Yes, UFO research is conducted in Germany!

]]>First Conference of the German Cooperation Initiative UFO Research on June 24, 2017https://www.german-ufo-research.org/en/blog/erste-tagung-der-deutschen-kooperationsinitiative-ufo-forschung-am-24-juni-2017
https://www.german-ufo-research.org/en/blog/erste-tagung-der-deutschen-kooperationsinitiative-ufo-forschung-am-24-juni-2017Fri, 14 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000On Saturday June 24, 2017, the German Cooperation Initiative UFO Research organises the first joint conference in Dipperz-Friesenhausen near Fulda. The conference is organised by DEGUFO, GEP, and MUFON-CES in equal parts.

The conference date has not been left to chance. On June 24th, 1947, the now legendary sighting of the American aviator Kenneth Arnold happened, who during a flight observed nine crescent-shaped objects in the sky near Mt. Rainier in the state of Washington, USA. Arnolds sighting initiated the still ongoing societal attention to the UFO phenomenon, is considered the starting point of the modern UFO phenomenon, and marks its 70th anniversary this year.

Conference venue and accomodation will be Rhön Residence in Dipperz-Friesenhausen (postcode 36160). The evening before (Friday, June 23) there will already be a joint dinner.

The conference program includes three presentations from a member of each of the organising associations and two presentations from external speakers both from Germany and abroad:

If you register and pay until May 31, 2017, the conference fee for members of one or more of the organising associations is 25,00 EUR (non-members 30,00 EUR). If you register and pay until June 19, 2017, the conference fee for members and non-members is 40,00 EUR. After that date, only box-office registrations are possible, where the conference fee for a participant will be 45,00 EUR. (Costs of accomodation and meals are not included.)

The German Cooperation Initiative UFO Research would be very happy to welcome many participants to the conference.

]]>The Common Archive for Documents and Material Concerning UFOs and Fringe Scienceshttps://www.german-ufo-research.org/en/blog/common-archive-2016-09-17
https://www.german-ufo-research.org/en/blog/common-archive-2016-09-17Sat, 17 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000In many countries, UFO research is carried out by private individuals or groups that document their activities, collect and archive relevant material autonomously. UFO organizations and researchers in Germany also have their own document collections and archives. In times of digitalization and disclosure of national UFO files in more and more countries (overview from the end of 2009), the amount of digitally available material on the internet as well as in private collections keeps increasing. Thus, there is a growing demand for enabling and supporting UFO research by a suitable management of data, information, and knowledge. This applies to discoverableness, searchability, consistency, conservation, protection and security of data, documents, and material that is relevant for scientific issues regarding UFOs.

Throughout the world, several organizations and researchers devote time to tasks concerning archiving and provisioning of UFO-related materials. In particular to be mentioned are the Archives for the Unexplained, resident in Sweden, being the biggest independent foundation for archiving of material related to fringe science phenomena, and being responsible for the preservation of numerous archives of well-known UFO researchers. Established in Texas, USA, the non-profit Anomaly Archives keeps US-american research materials in their library. A long list of further personal and institutional archives and collections can be viewed on the website of the Anomaly Archives.

Considering the amount, multilingualism, and the requirements to conservation of UFO-related materials, a worldwide central archive does not seem sufficient, neither do independent collections without reference to one another. Researchers with scientific problems related to existing material pose the question: Where can I find the information that I need? For this reason, the German-speaking UFO organizations in the German Cooperation Initiative UFO Research work together to establish a Common Archive for Documents and Material Concerning UFOs and Fringe Sciences.

Logo of the Common Archive for Documents and Material Concerning UFOs and Fringe Sciences

Its aim is a safe long-term archiving of materials related to UFOs and fringe sciences. These materials include national and international publications, questionnaires, case files, investigation reports, correspondences, newspaper articles, magazines, books, documents, photos, audio and video recordings, etc.

Digital versions of paper-based materials and of analog photos, video and audio recordings are created, and digital material will be saved as printouts. The archive prioritizes material in German, to secure publications and private archives from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and to include files and documents of the UFO organizations from the cooperation initiative. Concerning international material, a cooperation with other archives from around the world is planned, for example, in the form of an international exchange of publications.

Folder Structure of the Digital Archive

Material which includes personal data is subject to the German privacy law. Therefore, historical case files will be archived in anonymized form, unless the persons concerned have agreed to a publication of their names, or have gone to the public themselves.

In order to achieve a transparent and sustainable archiving, the development of standardized methods of storage and metadata creation is planned, which can be published themselves later. Here again, international cooperation would be necessary.

]]>The Common UFO Sightings Databasehttps://www.german-ufo-research.org/en/blog/ufo-database-2016-02-07
https://www.german-ufo-research.org/en/blog/ufo-database-2016-02-07Sun, 07 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000The UFO Database serves as a central archive for electronic documentations of reported UFO sightings in German-speaking countries. The objective is to enable the transparency of the work of UFO associations to researchers and interested people, as well as to enable investigations of cases or research questions.

Furthermore, visitors of the UFO Database can report their own UFO sighting and make it accessible to a UFO association or a case investigator for contact and investigation. In Germany, this type of UFO report via our database has become the most commonly used by UFO sighters.

The storage of contents in the UFO Database is bound by a neutral mindset without any fixed hypothesis about the UFO phenomenon itself: We have no conclusive, scientific knowledge about the cause(s) of the so far unexplained UFO sightings or about the similarities and differences between unexplained UFO cases and conventional sighting stimuli (IFO cases). Therefore, any reported UFO sighting, irrespective of its eventual investigation result, will be registered in the UFO Database. Thus, we follow the 100% rule of qualitative research and allow any kind of research question, also investigations including IFO cases.

Meanwhile, the UFO Database has a history spanning more than ten years. After preceding plans, the first version based on PHP/MySQL has been developed by Christian Czech in cooperation with the GEP, and was published in 2007. Also in 2007, the UFO cases of the German researcher Michael Hesemann were included into the database. The cases of the DEGUFO were added in 2008. Also in 2008, UFO case reports from the disclosed files of the British Ministry of Defence have been integrated into the UFO Database. CENAP, the private group of researchers, objected to a use of their case files in 2012.

From 2012 to 2015, the UFO Database has been completely redeveloped by Johannes Wagner, based on ASP.NET/MSSQL. Since then, the data model is based on the contents of the joint questionnaire of the participating UFO associations (which itself determines the information needed from a UFO sighter) as well as on known classifications and schemes used in case investigations. With the published version of the new UFO Database in 2015, the UFO cases of MUFON-CES were added.

Searching UFO Sightings in the UFO Database

Today, the UFO Database is the most important instrument for UFO sighting reports, case investigations, documentation and data evaluation in German-speaking countries. We will continue to improve the UFO Database, e.g. with a multilingual user interface, automatic import of completed questionnaires, standard interfaces for data transfer etc. The German Cooperation Initiative UFO Research is now the managing organisation of the UFO Database as a common project.

]]>DEGUFO, GEP und MUFON-CES agree to cooperatehttps://www.german-ufo-research.org/en/blog/cooperation-2016-01-04
https://www.german-ufo-research.org/en/blog/cooperation-2016-01-04Mon, 04 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000One June 26th, 2015, board members of DEGUFO, GEP, and MUFON-CES met on the occasion of an open house presentation at the Hachenberg barracks / German Air Force location Erndtebrück. The setting was perfect: in Erndtebrück, an Air Force Control and Reporting Centre (CRC) is stationed, which is part of the NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defense. In a relaxed setting, the participants did not only discuss professional matters, but also agreed to options of future cooperation. Staff changes in the MUFON-CES board cleared the way for these agreements.

Since DEGUFO and GEP had implemented practical measures of cooperation in advance, during this meeting, cooperation opportunities between the association of DEGUFO/GEP and MUFON-CES were explored.

Constructive conversations between Marius Kettmann (DEGUFO), Hans-Werner Peiniger (GEP), Wolfgang Stelzig (MUFON-CES), Jörg Kiefer (MUFON-CES) and Dr. Johannes Lienert (MUFON-CES) as well as several other members of the three organizations who traveled to Erndtebrück for this meeting, led to the following certain agreements:

A mailing list will be created, where the boards of the associations can exchange views and discuss organizational and other topics in the short term (already implemented).

MUFON-CES will participate in the project UFO Database and will provide their data about reported and investigated UFO sightings for registering (already implemented).

MUFON-CES will participate in the mutual case investigator mailing list and their case investigators will be added.

The integration of MUFON-CES in additional cooperative projects and initiations of new projects will be discussed together. Possible topics will be the joint questionnaire, collectively organized conferences, visits to civil authorities and similar institutions, discounts on membership fees for members of all three associations etc.

Furthermore, the three participating associations agreed to perform cooperative projects in the context of a research coalition. Through this coalition, further activities shall follow, e.g. establishing and maintaining contacts to European and international UFO researchers and organizations. For that purpose, a multilingual website will be established which will provide information about the goals and projects of the "German Cooperation Initiative UFO Research".

from left to right: Marius Kettmann, Hans-Werner Peiniger and Wolfgang Stelzig

The future cooperation is based on many common grounds of the three associations and will serve the advancement and organization of joint projects. Furthermore, the strengths of the individual associations will be combined and the potential of research into the UFO phenomenon will be enhanced and professionalised. Between the associations, a regular exchange of views will be established which optimizes communication among each other.

The meeting between DEGUFO, GEP, and MUFON-CES, which many participants referred to as "historical", showed that regardless of earlier reservations, a reasonable and beneficial cooperation is possible. The associations are looking forward to a common future and to the opportunities of cooperative research.